Peco double charges 17,000 customers

Peco Energy Co. said Monday that a vendor that processes checks for it deducted about 17,000 customers’ payments from their bank accounts twice on Thursday.

The Philadelphia-based electric-and-gas utility said it learned of the mistake Friday, has returned most of the excess payments and expects to complete returning the rest today. The subsidiary of Chicago-based Exelon Corp. (NYSE:EXC) said it is also covering any overdraft fees caused by the double charging and is working with the vendor to make sure the mistake doesn’t happen again.